


One Foot After the Other

by TheDarknessFactor



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Post-Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Prompt Fill, Recovery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-25 23:52:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6215188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDarknessFactor/pseuds/TheDarknessFactor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They support him.  They build him up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Foot After the Other

**Author's Note:**

> This was a fill for this prompt: "I wish you would write a fic where Finn has a hard time regaining full functionality of his lower body after his fight with Emo Ren, but Rey and Poe are there to help him along the way. They support him. They build him up."
> 
> As you can see, I kind of stole the prompt for the summary.
> 
> Enjoy!

The bacta treatments are supposed to be helping.  
  
Maybe they are helping - physically, at least.  He can feel something when the medical droid pokes at his toes.  But spending hours on end drifting in green fluid doesn’t exactly stop sheer boredom - nor does it stop the thoughts that creep into his mind these days.

There are many nights when he wakes up gasping, his back searing from the memory of pain; he usually has to roll onto his side to go back to sleep.  
  
The doctor claims that he won’t need prosthetic replacements for his legs.  Sometimes, Finn has trouble believing her - usually when another therapy session ends with him landing on his ass.  
  
Poe visits regularly.  He always brings some of the cafeteria food with him.  “Not that it’s much better than the medbay food,” he admits the first time.  “But I figured you could use something other than soup for a change.”  
  
“It isn’t a ration bar,” Finn replies, grinning.  “That’s good enough for me.”  
  
Most of the time they’ll just… sit.  And talk.  Finn quickly figures out that Poe is just the kind of guy who makes people want to talk to him, and after about a week he’s spilling all his frustrations - with his recovery, with Rey being gone - onto Poe.  
  
He lapses into silence, staring down at his knees.  “Sorry.  Didn’t mean to dump all that on you.”  
  
“Hey, don’t feel bad about it.”  Poe smiles warmly.  “I’m glad I was able to help.”

* * *

Rey returns a few weeks after Finn wakes up, with The Actual Luke Skywalker in tow.  The guy doesn’t look that impressive at first glance, but Finn finds himself needing to look away when he embraces the general.  That moment seems too private for the number of people that are there.

Rey hurries over to him.  “Finn, how are - is that a hoverchair?”  She’s at his side at an instant, poking around at the mechanisms.  “Amazing, I can’t believe - this would have been so useful on Jakku -”

Finn can’t help but find her excitement endearing.  “I’ll make you a deal - as soon as I’m out of this thing, you can have at it.”

“Pretty sure the doc would murder you,” Poe points out.  

Finn catches Rey’s eye.  “All in the name of science, right?”

“Of course.”  She beams.  “Hello, Poe.”

“Hi Rey.  It’s great to have you back.”

“Likewise.”  She stretches up on her toes to give Poe a hug, then leans down and wraps her arms around Finn as well.  

For the first time in a while, everything is alright.

* * *

Rey and Poe are both there the first time he makes it across the room.  Their cheers make him grin, in spite of the fact that his legs collapse from underneath him afterwards.

“We should celebrate,” Poe suggests.  

‘Celebrate’ turns out to be sneaking away from the base while Rey is supposed to be training (though Finn is fairly sure that Luke could find her if he really wanted to) and spending the day at the edge of a nearby lake.  None of them swim, and Finn is just happy to dangle his feet in the water and enjoy the cooling sensation.

“You guys have been great about all this,” he says.  “So… thanks for that.  I know you’re both pretty busy-”

“We’re never too busy for you,” Rey assures him.

“All the same,” he replies, unable to put the warmth he feels into words.  “Thank you.”


End file.
